Kansas City, Mo. (Nov. 16, 2007) – Over the past decade, an increased appreciation of the importance of chromatin in regulating gene expression has led to the rapid discovery of a significant number of new enzymes that modify the structure of chromatin. The newly discovered enzymes have been assigned names hastily, and the results are sometimes noncoherent and often inconsistent between species.

     Two Stowers Institute Investigators — Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., and Jerry Workman, Ph.D. — have joined eleven other colleagues in authoring an article in the journal Cell that advocates a new, structured method for naming families of chromatin-modifying enzymes.

     “The old nomenclature — a combination of names from different disciplines like genetics and biochemistry and organisms such as yeast, fruit flies, and humans — was too confusing for new people entering the field to learn and remember,” explains Dr. Workman. “We hope that the new nomenclature will be more simple to learn and will unify the names of these enzymes across species.”

     The team of authors refined the new nomenclature over recent years.

     “We started this initiative with our colleagues in the field several years ago with the hope of developing a logical and user-friendly nomenclature for chromatin modifying machineries,” explains Dr. Shilatifard. “This new nomenclature should allow individuals working with the same enzyme in different organisms to follow one another’s work. Furthermore, employing this nomenclature, students and new scientists entering the chromatin field should have an easier time understanding the chromatin literature.”

     Additional authors include David Allis, The Rockefeller University; Shelley Berger, The Wistar Institute; Thomas Jenuwein, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology; Tony Kouzarides, University of Cambridge; Lorraine Pillus, University of California San Diego; Danny Reinberg, New York Univeristy School of Medicine; Sharon Roth, MD Anderson Cancer Center; Yang Shi, Harvard Medical School; Ramin Shiekhattar, The Wistar Institute; Jacque Cote, Laval University Cancer Research Center; and Yi Zhang, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

About the Stowers Institute
     Housed in a 600,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility on a 10-acre campus in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research conducts basic research on fundamental processes of cellular life. Through its commitment to collaborative research and the use of cutting-edge technology, the Institute seeks more effective means of preventing and curing disease. The Institute was founded by Jim and Virginia Stowers, two cancer survivors who have created combined endowments of $2 billion in support of basic research of the highest quality.